“To feel at one with God for a moment is better than all men’s acts of worship from the beginning to the end of the world.” (Shiblī.)
“Fear of the Fire, in comparison with fear of being parted from the Beloved, is like a drop of water cast into the mightiest ocean.” (Dhu ’l-Nūn.)
“Unless I have the face of my heart towards Thee,
I deem prayer unworthy to be reckoned as prayer.
If I turn my face to the Kaʿba, ’tis for love of Thine;
Otherwise I am quit both of prayer and Kaʿba.”
(Jalāluddīn Rūmī.)
Love, again, is the divine instinct of the soul impelling it to realise its nature and destiny. The soul is the first-born of God: before the creation of the universe it lived and moved and had its being in Him, and during its earthly manifestation it is a stranger in exile, ever pining to return to its home.
“This is Love: to fly heavenward,
To rend, every instant, a hundred veils;